TOP POSTS THIS WEEK 11/14/20
TOP POSTS THIS MONTH 11/14/20
POSTS THIS WEEK 11/14/20
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Covid-19 Has Eroded My Faith in Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog
Covid-19 Has Eroded My Faith in Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog
Covid-19 Has Eroded My Faith in Public Schools
I am a public school advocate.
I teach at a public school.
My daughter goes to a public school.
I have spent most of my professional career fighting for public schools against every form of school privatization imaginable.
But since the beginning of this school year and the incredibly reckless way many public schools have dealt with reopening and keeping students and staff safe, I feel much of that enthusiasm drying up.
It’s not something I’m proud of feeling.
I’m actually kind of embarrassed about it.
But there are so many people I will never be able to look at the same way ever again.
There are so many organizations, unions, school boards, administrators, policy makers who have lost my trust – perhaps forever.
I’m not saying I love charter schools or private schools.
I don’t. CONTINUE READING: Covid-19 Has Eroded My Faith in Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog
Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org
Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org
TEACHERS ARE ON A TIGHTROPE WITH NO SAFETY NET
The Hybrid Model Teachers Are Being Thrust Into During The Pandemic Isn’t Sustainable Without More Resources And Support.
After more than a month into New York City’s experiment with reopening schools in a hybrid format that has students alternating between classrooms and their homes, teacher Sapphira Hendrix still finds herself working until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning, planning lessons and responding to students. One night, in particular, she recounts, when finishing up a lesson plan for one of her classes, she glanced at the clock and noticed it was 4:30 a.m. “I realized I had just finished my work for the night at about the same time I normally would be getting up to start my day.”
Hendrix says this was one of the moments she finally was struck with the absurdity of what educators in her community, and in many school districts across America, are doing to carry their work in a pandemic. “This isn’t healthy or sustainable,” she says.
When New York City schools opened their doors with a plan for students to cycle in and out of classrooms and learn remotely the rest of the time, many doubted this big city would pull it off. Educators, parents, and students had questions about the logistics of an undertaking so enormous by a Department of Education that has struggled for years, even without a pandemic.
Hudson High School of Learning Technologies in Manhattan, where Hendrix works, seems like a great example of a school that’s doing hybrid learning right. CONTINUE READING: Teachers Are On A Tightrope With No Safety Net - PopularResistance.Org
How The Children Won Over The Cloud Beings – Wrench in the Gears
How The Children Won Over The Cloud Beings – Wrench in the Gears
How The Children Won Over The Cloud Beings
Quite a few times I’ve been asked how I would explain my research to a child. This week that line of thought led me to imagine what a fairytale about it might look like. It wouldn’t, of course, have the specifics of my “follow the money” investigations, but rather come from a place of the heart. In this moment of more and more extreme behavior on the part of world governments, holding onto that space, clinging to hope and love and empowerment feels like a vital contribution. I’m not a writer of fiction, but I’ve done my level best to step up to the challenge I’ve set myself. I’m grateful to have embraced an odd-ball format for my blog – everything and the kitchen sink. This week it’s ogres.
Once upon a time, there was a community of ogres living on a remote mountaintop. Their great-great-great grandparents had trekked above the tree line years ago, no longer wishing to be friends with lesser beings. They chose an isolated spot where they could look down on everyone, and within a few years everyone forgot the path down off the mountain. They spent their days sipping lichen broth, feeling self-satisfied, and generally being irritable with one another.
The ogres’ village was so high up that cloud beings were their only companions, mysterious creatures who spun weather spells and gathered the stories of far-flung lands. Most days, clouds encircled the ogres’ compound bringing news to the desolate outpost. These transmissions were limited to ones and zeros, so the stories lacked vibrancy. Still, the ogres craved their daily dose of information and invented machines to capture and interpret it. Every bit of data they stowed away in a labyrinth of caves extending far back into the heart of the mountain. CONTINUE READING: How The Children Won Over The Cloud Beings – Wrench in the Gears
Coveducation recap: After one week, OKCPS moves back to remote learning
Coveducation recap: After one week, OKCPS moves back to remote learning
Coveducation recap: After one week, OKCPS moves back to remote learning
Community Strategies, which serves as Epic Charter Schools’ board of education, will meet Wednesday, Nov. 18, to continue discussing corrective actions after an investigative audit revealed issues such as poor financial oversight.
The Rose State Board of Regents will also be meeting next week, with Epic officials planned to be in attendance. Combined, the public bodies are likely to make for another week of marathon #oklaed meetings worth watching.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, however, catch up on this week’s marathon meetings and other Oklahoma education news with our recap of headlines from reporters around the state.
OKCPS returning to remote learning
Oklahoma City Public Schools announced Friday that the district will be returning to remote learning on Nov. 16 through the end of the semester.
This comes after one week of in-person classes on an A/B schedule and as Oklahoma County reached the State Department of Education’s ‘Red Alert’ level for COVID-19 cases CONTINUE READING: Coveducation recap: After one week, OKCPS moves back to remote learning
Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again by Ben Jealous
Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again
by Ben Jealous | @BenJealous | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made a brilliant choice in opening her remarks at the Democratic presidential ticket’s victory celebration with a quote from civil rights icon and former Georgia congressman John Lewis, who wrote before he died, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”
Lewis, who was nearly killed by racist police on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama, knew better than most of us that taking action to defend democracy can be dangerous. But he also knew, as Harris reminded us, that there is joy in the struggle.
Brothers and sisters, defeating Donald Trump was an occasion for great joy. I loved seeing people post videos of a dancing John Lewis to celebrate. But we have more actions to take, more bridges to cross, more elections to win—right now, and right in John Lewis’s home state of Georgia.
Georgia was in the rare position of having two U.S. senate races on the ballot in the same year. Both races had more than two candidates, and both races have now gone to runoff elections, according to Georgia law, because no candidate got over 50 percent of the vote.
That means that on January 5—actually for early voters starting December 14—Georgia voters have the power to decide whether the U.S. Senate will have a majority willing to work with the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people, or whether we’ll be stuck with a Republican majority led CONTINUE READING: Georgia’s Black Voters Can Make History Again by Ben Jealous | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Mitchell Robinson: We Told You… | Eclectablog
We Told You… | Eclectablog
We Told You…
The inestimable Ron French is out this week with a terrific article in Bridge on the exploding Covid crisis in Michigan’s schools, and the situation is indeed dire. Readers across the state must be wondering how we got here.
“Kids don’t catch the virus!”, they said.
“And if they do catch it, they don’t get sick!”, they said.
Even if those statements were true—and they are not—they completely miss the point.
Can children drive themselves to school?
Cook and serve school lunches?
Provide first aid if they get hurt?
Clean and disinfect classrooms?
Teach themselves?
Schools are not just places for children. The adults in schools also matter. The teachers, administrators, school cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, and all of the other “grown ups” who help schools run and serve the needs of our children. And these adults deserve to be treated with compassion and respect.
I am so tired of people demanding that schools remain open in the midst of a surging, out-of-control infectious pandemic. In the best of times schools are Petri dishes full of germs and CONTINUE READING: We Told You… | Eclectablog
Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) – Part Three | Blue Cereal Education
Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) – Part Three | Blue Cereal Education
Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) – Part Three
I’m discovering as I continue to draft a follow-up to “Have To” History: Landmark Supreme Court Cases that it’s more and more difficult to keep things succinct as subject matter nears the 21st century. I’m sharing a few rough drafts along the way partly in hopes a few of you, my Eleven Faithful Followers, might find them interesting, and partly because nothing highlights the problems in a text like posting it live for all the world to see.
Some version of this Talmudic Tale will likely be in the upcoming book. Chances are good, however, that the final results will be considerably more succinct.
Recap of Parts One & Two: Kiryas Joel was (and is) a community of particularly insular Hasidic Jews (the Satmars) in New York. Most of their children attended private religious schools, but they asked the state for assistance providing care and education for their special needs children. Initial efforts to serve these particular children rand into conflict with recent Supreme Court rulings which struck down several public school efforts to serve high needs kids in religious institutions. New York responded by allowing the Satmars to create their own neighborhood and later a publicly funded neighborhood school tailored to their precise boundaries. The Supreme Court struck CONTINUE READING: Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) – Part Three | Blue Cereal Education
In the Public Interest: Some Good News from the 2020 Elections | Diane Ravitch's blog
In the Public Interest: Some Good News from the 2020 Elections | Diane Ravitch's blog
In the Public Interest: Some Good News from the 2020 Elections
“In the Public Interest” is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates on behalf of the common good, an increasingly scarce resource these past four years.
Here is the good news that ITPI has gathered. Add to it by contacting them directly.
Even in defeat, Trump is doing it again—sucking up all the attention with aimless lawsuits and absurd tweets about voter fraud and the “Fake News Media.”
But there’s plenty of good news coming out of last week.
Voters passed a host of ballot measures in states and localities that make government work for all of us, not the wealthy few who rig the rules in their favor. They voted to raise revenue for education, transit, and libraries; expand family leave; reject the failed war on drugs; give workers a raise; and much more.
- Florida voters passed Amendment 2, which will raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. The Florida Policy Institute estimates this will lift pay for 5 million Floridians.
- In Colorado, voters approved Proposition 118, providing workers in the state 12 weeks of paid family leave and 16 weeks for the birth CONTINUE READING: In the Public Interest: Some Good News from the 2020 Elections | Diane Ravitch's blog
Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog
Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog
Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic
Enrollments declined in public schools across Indiana, due to the pandemic. And when enrollments decline, schools suffer financial losses.
Blogger Steve Hinnefeld estimates that public schools across the state will lose at least $100 million due to enrollment declines.
This is a story that is happening in districts across the nation. DeVos must be thrilled.
He writes:
Indiana school districts stand to lose over $100 million in state funding this year because of reduced enrollment attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fall 2020 enrollment in traditional public schools declined CONTINUE READING: Indiana: Public Schools Lose $100 Million due to Pandemic | Diane Ravitch's blog
A Marshall Plan for saving American public schools. – Fred Klonsky
A Marshall Plan for saving American public schools. – Fred Klonsky
A MARSHALL PLAN FOR SAVING AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
In the darkest days of the Trump administration there were many of us who doubted the concept and reality of public education would survive.
Trump’s Secretary of Education advocated for its destruction.
The pandemic, as in all things, has made it worse.
It was good to read in the New York Times that the Biden administration wants to reverse course on Betsy DeVos.
But that is not enough.
Public schools remain on life-support.
Teachers on the front lines of the pandemic are exhausted. Thousands are leaving the profession.
Local funding – never sufficient, particularly in Black and Brown communities – has CONTINUE READING: A Marshall Plan for saving American public schools. – Fred Klonsky
Diwali 2020: What is the festival of lights and how is it celebrated?
Diwali 2020: What is the festival of lights and how is it celebrated?
What is Diwali, the festival of lights, and how will it be celebrated
amid coronavirus?
Beginning on Thursday, more than a billion people around the world will began the annual celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that many consider to be the start of the new year.
Typically, the festival is marked by celebrations both at home and in large community gatherings by people of many faiths in both India and the diaspora. In recent years, celebrations have become increasingly mainstream in America with large events in Disneyland and Times Square as well as convention centers across the country.
This year, Diwali festivities will likely revert back to more intimate family gatherings coupled with online observances as both countries grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
India, which has reported more than 8.6 million COVID-19 cases and more than 127,000 deaths, is second only to the United States which has more than 10.2 million cases and nearly 240,000 deaths, according to data from John Hopkins University. CONTINUE READING: Diwali 2020: What is the festival of lights and how is it celebrated?
Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog
Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog
Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans
Under the leadership of Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island is a very charter-friendly state. Raimondo was a venture capitalist before she entered politics. Her husband was TFA.
The welcome mat is out for charter schools in the state. The latest proposal for a new charter comes from Excel Academy in Boston.
Linda Borg of the Providence Journal writes:
PROVIDENCE — Critics of a new charter school application say the Boston-based school will draw millions of dollars away from the traditional public schools and, combined with a proposed expansion of Achievement First, create two parallel school systems.
Excel Academy hopes to enroll 2,100 students in kindergarten through grade 12 by the time it reaches full capacity in 10 years — at a cost of $7.4 million in lost local revenues to the Providence school district.
“Frankly, it could be the best school in the universe,” said CONTINUE READING: Rhode Island: Critics Object to Charter Expansion Plans | Diane Ravitch's blog
Whatever Happened To Cursive Writing? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Whatever Happened To Cursive Writing? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Whatever Happened To Cursive Writing?
Recent articles (see here and here) have documented the slow death of a traditional subject in the elementary school curriculum. Since the 1970s, teaching penmanship, usually in the second or third grades, declined. With 45 states adopting Common Core Standards in which using technology trumps cursive writing has hammered the last nail into the penmanship tradition. Well, not quite.
Efforts to prevent the extinction of an endangered school subject in North Carolina, Indiana and a few other states have led to legislative mandates that penmanship be taught in elementary school. That delaying action, however, will not alter the eventual disappearance of handwriting from the curriculum.
Arguments for dropping cursive handwriting include irrelevance–block printing is now acceptable in replacing cursive, typing is far more efficient than handwriting, standardized tests do not require handwriting–and its difficulty for many students to learn who will not use it much for the rest of their lives. Oops! Almost forgot that people do not have to sign documents since there are now electronic cursive signatures. Finally, teaching handwriting takes up valuable time in the second and third grades that could be better spent on acquiring Common Core content and skills and preparing for high-stakes standardized tests.
What is cursive writing? CONTINUE READING: Whatever Happened To Cursive Writing? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
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